TV Spooks plot 'is modelled on David Kelly'

A FICTIONAL scientist who is blackmailed by the security services in the BBC drama series Spooks was modelled on the late David Kelly, according to the show's writer.

Howard Brenton, the Left-wing playwright who has written the new series of the BBC1 spy drama, indicated that it was no coincidence that the grey-bearded scientist who will appear in Monday's episode shares many similarities with the Iraq weapons expert.

Brenton said he wanted to explore the theme of "a very decent man who is put under enormous pressure". The same judgment was widely made of Dr Kelly, who committed suicide in July last year after he was exposed as the source of a BBC story which alleged that the Government had "sexed up" a dossier about Iraqi weapons.

In the drama, the fictional scientist, Prof Fred Roberts - played by Ian McDiarmid - is an MI5 "sleeper" who is forcibly "awakened" to act as bait to trap a terrorist gang.

Like Dr Kelly, Prof Roberts is married with three daughters and, again like the weapons expert, his involvement with the security service has disastrous consequences. "We did want to have a theme of a very decent man who is put under enormous pressure and whose weakness is his own vanity. I thought that was interesting," said Brenton.

He added that the Government's row with the BBC over the Iraqi dossier story had influenced other aspects of the drama.

The first episode, last Monday, involved a brutish No 10 adviser putting pressure on the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, played by Tim McInnerny, to bring MI5 more closely under government control.

"What was on my mind was the dossier and how MI6 had appeared to have been been put under enormous political pressure," said Brenton.

"It had occurred to me that, in reality, the JIC had become more and more powerful and I wanted to reflect that."

Jane Featherstone, the series executive producer, admitted that the storyline for the first episode was "inspired by Hutton" but said the drama was "not presenting anything as fact".

Brenton's remarks are embarrassing for the BBC, which has tried to settle its differences with the Government in the aftermath of the Hutton inquiry.

However, there remains considerable anger among many within the corporation over the Government's behaviour in the dispute, and some insiders insist that the parallels in Spooks are intended as a deliberate provocation.

A BBC spokesman rejected any suggestion that the drama was intended to "get back" at Downing Street.

The corporation said the episode was originally conceived in February last year - before the Kelly affair. But it was unable to say when the script was finished. The BBC also said the story was "completely different" to the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly.